As I sit around thinking about random things all day, I find it surprising where my thoughts take me. The other day, for example, I was noticing how odd it was that people will use "Jesus Christ" as a swear, when they certainly don't believe in Him. It's odd because the term Christ literally means Messiah. Therefore, in the midst of their anger at whatever, they are acknowledging Jesus as Messiah.
This applies as well to using "oh my God" as a phrase. If you call out for God this way, there is an acknowledgment of possession in the phrase itself. So, despite the popularity of unbelief these days, everyone seems to call on God once in awhile.
I'm not saying everyone who says these things is always a believer either. I find it odd how much of our godless society still finds ways to acknowledge God in everyday speech.
I noticed a while back that the cross is our symbol in much of the world for memorial. Also, many funerals and memorial services will still read Psalm 23, regardless of the beliefs of the deceased or their family.
If someone is killed in a car accident, you see a cross on the highway. Our military memorials are filled with crosses marking the graves of our fallen soldiers. Whether we got together as a society and decided on this symbol or not, the fact remains that Christianity still permeates this country and others. People can try to suppress it as much as possible, but no one is going to go around to all the graves and highway memorials replacing crosses with "COEXIST" bumper stickers (exaggeration intended).
~Love, Love, Love~
With all this in mind, I began thinking about the current "love is all you need" view of the world, and much of Christianity. Somewhere along the line, we decided that Jesus was only love. We replaced God's uncomfortable (for us) attributes with the one attribute we deal with in society day to day. We all love family and friends and husbands and wives. Love is always a good thing to us, so why not pretend that is all God cares about.
I spoke previously about Jesus as a "hippie Jesus" who loves everyone too much to stand by Holy judgement. I am willing to bet a majority of Christians believe more in this Jesus than the Biblical one these days as well. If they won't admit it, a simple anonymous poll would likely skew this direction.
When considering God, we must consider all of His divine attributes, not just the ones with which we are comfortable. For Christians who come from pain and suffering, love and grace are often the attributes they need to know about initially. I understand this and would agree in part. But, as we progress in our walk with Christ, we need to acknowledge that God's love is not His only attribute that directly affects us.
We wouldn't need God's love and grace if we were even slightly deserving on our own. As it is, humanity's sin is repugnant to a Holy and Just God.
Holiness and Justice are the two aspects of God's character most foreign to many Christians these days, and most of the world in regards to its view of our God.
We can fathom a judge and jury handing out sentences to deserving criminals, but we cannot seem to fathom how our great Judge and Jury, God, can be the same. "How can a loving God send people to hell?" is a common sentiment. Without getting off track, bear in mind it is not God who "sends" us to Hell, but it is we who choose our eternal resting place. Our choices in life have bearing on that judgment.
~Holy, Holy, Holy~
God's holiness admittedly can be a sobering thought, even to a born-again, saved, spirit-filled Christian. To comprehend it is an acknowledgment that we don't have what it takes on our own to be acceptable to our creator. We have fallen so far, that without divine intervention (Christ and the cross), we are lost and forever separated. That separation becomes more worrisome when considering that the purpose of our creation was to be in fellowship with God. Pure, uninhibited fellowship. If what we are created for is not possible to achieve, then we lose our purpose. We gain the world's view that all is for nothing, and we must live while we can for tomorrow we die and return to nothing. It's a depressing view to say the least.
It is also a view that eliminates known emotions and feelings like hope and anticipation. What is there to hope for if we cannot fulfill our created purpose? We seek ways of fulfilling ourselves, but the God-shaped hole (sorry for cliché) is not filled by worldly pursuits. I'm sure the richest people in the world would still admit they are lacking something, and they have all the resources to achieve and do anything they desire in theory.
~I Want Life My Way~
It was with these thoughts that I began to wonder how the world can be so good at promoting God's love, while still being totally unloving. My mom wrote a blog the other day about people being rude and things, and it made me realize that the majority of people promoting this "God is love," and "love is all you need," attitude are the same ones who scream at you for taking their parking spot. They are the same people who get angry in traffic, and wouldn't stop for two seconds to let someone in if their life depended on it.
The world will promote love, but at its heart is pure selfishness. We love our families and close friends, but many people could care less beyond that.
Even as a Christian, I will admit now for the first time, that I truly don't care about others sometimes. It is sinful and I acknowledge that, but sometimes I just want to take care of me. I'm sure we all go there sometimes. Selfishness is not a God-given attitude, but a sinful product of a fallen world, where survival of the fittest is the promoted order of the day.
People that I know who don't believe in God will call him loving all day, but how many of these people, will step out in every circumstance to show love to everyone? It's impossible on our own. There are days we are all selfish.
Now, if God's holiness requires total coherence with God's commands for our lives; and God's command dictates loving our neighbor as our self, we are all short of the requirement (and that's just one). If then, God's judgment is based solely on God's commands, and our eternal situation is reliant on God's judgment, what do we think is going to happen? God, in pure holiness and with a better justice than we can even perceive, will rule justly according to His commands, which our selfish hearts failed to meet the demands of with 100% attainment.
It sounds ridiculous in its difficulty. So now, we have God desiring to have his creation back to its intended purpose. A creation which fell through no fault of God, but by our own selfish desire. God, in His infinite foresight saw that for us to be reconciled, He would come to earth in human form, live perfectly, and be a blood sacrifice for the washing of humanity's sins.
God took the form of Jesus the Christ, being at once fully God and fully man, fulfilled the law perfectly, and died as our sacrificial lamb, so that forgiveness of our inability to keep the law and God's commands would be righted once and for all.
Now with this came a stipulation that we believe and trust this sacrifice. Within that really is emphasis on a reliance on this sacrifice as our only means of restoring right relationship with our creator. Jesus acts as mediator between God the Father and man, and defends us to the father, on the grounds of his blood and our trusting in it for salvation.
So as simple as "love is all you need" mantra has become it is ultimately useless when giving an account of our life. We may have helped a stranger one time, or given sacrificially in some instances, but much more often, we are selfish (mentally and manifestly), and care more about our well-being than others. For the rare individual who seems truly selfless, remember that sin nature permeates us, and even the most outwardly selfless person, can have selfish desires and thoughts.
"All You Need is Love," is a catchy Beatles tune, but ultimately meaningless in the context of our lives. We can love one another, and do good deeds all day, but our inherent selfishness will prevent reconciliation with God. Considering we were made to be with God, isn't it about time we stop focusing on ourselves, and step out towards what is required to reunite us with our Heavenly Father?
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